Dean Johnson Comments on Immigration Claim for PolitiFact.com
Dean Kevin R. Johnson commented for a report on PolitiFact.com, the political fact-checking website sponsored by the Tampa Bay Times, regarding a recent statement by MSNBC host Jose Diaz-Balart that "Every single day in this country, 1,000 people are deported and the vast majority of those people that are deported aren't criminals." The statement was rated "half true" by PolitiFact because about 55 percent, and not a "vast majority," of the roughly 1,000 people subject to removal each day do not face criminal charges.
"Throughout the Obama years, the data has shown that removals based on non-criminal or minor criminal offenses, such as driving without a license, have greatly outnumbered the removals of serious criminal offenders," Johnson said.
Kevin R. Johnson is Dean and Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o studies at UC Davis School of Law. He is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of immigration law and policy, refugee law, and civil rights.